It does not take a lot of imagination to think of Berlin as a giant playground. In times of Pokemon Go and other augmented reality games, the street-running movement and immersive theater experiences, everything – and everybody – seems ready to play.
But I don’t think that the origin of Berlin playfulness is based on technology, fitness or even cultural trends. I remember vividly how years ago I met on a subway ride a young dude that outed himself as a philosophy professor. (The combination of young dude and philosophy professor was a surprise at that time. Nowadays I am not as easily surprised ;-)) He told me that he is part of a creative project called invisible playground. In this project, he told me they tried to research and examine how a daily portion of playfulness can affect your overall happiness.
But invisible playground is not the only creative project celebrating the idea of a playful city. The Berlin-based artist duo 44Flavours have already left their footmark in the local creative scene. Experimenting with all kind of art forms, from murals to posters, and painting to sculpture, the two friends Sebastian Bagge and Julio Rölle, have worked together since they were students. Their success formula is a vibrant combination of teamwork and creative chaos. For the #LiveThere exhibition by Airbnb they created an interactive playground where you can tell your personal Berlin story. There you can listen to murmuring teapots, talk to enchanted mirrors and have fun with all kinds of everyday objects transformed into a creative installation. The idea behind this project is to share different stories about Berlin and to emphasize how with a spark of creative inventiveness and playfulness every trip to Berlin can become a one of a kind experience.
Inspired by that idea, I thought of how we could be more active in experiencing our city as a playful place. I started thinking about the rules and I realized that the games you decide to play on your personal urban playground don’t have to follow any rules or even the norms of standard morality. Between lust and pain is the instinct to play. Therefore I dove deeply into my own imagination and created a set of Berlin-specific mind games. Follow my colorful, funny but sometimes also sensual and dark inspirations to transform your everyday life in Berlin into a crazy game-like experience.
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by Claudio | City Guide, Design, Photos
The future is not as complicated and overly technological and dehumanized as predicted in all the sci-fi movies we used to watch as kids in the 90s. On the contrary: the technological innovations of our daily lives are user-centered, human-friendly and resourceful. You can observe how the future becomes a glimpse more simple every day. At least if you follow the vision of high-tech design brand Samsung.
On the occasion of the launch of their newest home product, the Samsung AddWash, the brand just opened a pop-up shop with a unique concept in Berlin. From outside the Samsung AddWash store looks like the fanciest laundromat in town. But on display is not just any washing machine. The Samsung AddWash is redefining the design and functions of your usual laundry with innovative features, like an extra door where you can add on products during the cleaning process. With a Smart Home-App you can also always check the status of your laundry.
The exclusive pop-up concept store was curated in cooperation with iGNANT, and will feature products from acclaimed design brands like Lyon Beton, a French studio that specializes in the design and production of concrete furniture, the interior design studio 10119DESIGN, who create a crazy mix between 20th century furniture icons and young design from Berlin, and Italian bath design studio Boffi. We are super curious to see what the teams of Samsung and put together and look forward to get in touch with this special home design revolution. More impressions of the shop and the opening times after the jump. Read on…
by Claudio | Prenzlauer Berg, Shops
This upcoming weekend is all over the radar of design. Multiple happenings lure product and fashion designers from all over the world to our beloved city. Design has become an important creative field in this city – 10 years ago, making a living in the creative industry was fairly impossible. Nowadays tons of small studios, ateliers and design manufactures build businesses in town. This weekend not only do you have the chance to visit the spaces of these small studios, but you can also discover international design coming to Berlin for the DMY fair. This and three other design highlights in our little design guide for the weekend.
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by Claudio | City Guide, Products
photos: Alicia Kassebohm
Exploring new cities has always been a pleasure for us. We come back with a bag full of new inspiration, ideas and urban concepts that we might want to see also in our beloved hometown. Last week Alicia Kassebohm and I had the great pleasure to travel to Milan to visit the prominent Milan Design Week invited by the Belgium Design initiative: Belgium is Design. Like last year we visited The Salone del Mobile which is the biggest fair for contemporary design products and the Fuorisalone (outside Salone) the uncountable mass of side-events happening all around the city. In over 5 districts of Milan the complete neighborhood is transformed into a walkable showroom where young and upcoming designers and small manufactures present their products. This brings not only a lot of creativity to the neighborhoods but also involves the inhabitants in what is usually a very elitist topic: design. This kind of urban participation is something I really miss in all the fairs and big events happening in Berlin. So this would be something I could really imagine in a Berlin of the future. After the jump you find our favorite impressions sorted out by districts, a little art museum adventure we had and the best pieces from the exhibition of our partners from the Belgium Design Initiative.
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by Claudio | Design, Travel
photos: Anna Agliardi
Going out to a museum filled with old paintings does not sound like the typical Friday night activity we use to have here in Berlin. Not so last weekend though, where a massive amount of young (more or less) hip people went to the Gemäldegalerie to a very unusual event. At Meeting Botticelli, the event for the Botticelli exhibition featuring the grand artist of Italian renaissance, the normal rules of going to an old museum were upside-down. Instead of tiptoeing quietly through the magnificent halls the event wanted to explore a different side of creative interaction with art.
Guides who brought you through the exhibition with eyepatches, speakers who asked you and others about your emotion to the artwork and performances which which would rather fit to Sisyphos where only a few of many interesting ideas of this unique event. To finish in glory there was a small party in the foyer of the museum after the exhibition closed. Visitors and performers had quite some fun dancing together to “I am your Venus – I am your Fire” . I hope that those kind of art presentations will happen more often in Berlin. The city has an enormous cultural richness that young people need to discover through new methods. The next event of that series will take place at Hamburger Bahnhof in Summer. Until then you can enjoy the photos that our photographer Anna Agliardi created for us or take your chance to visit the exhibition about Botticelli until the end of this week.
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by Claudio | Art, Party, Photos
The Hallesches Haus, located inside a former post office at Hallesches Tor, is one of the most exciting concepts stores for interior design and all the beautiful things in life in Berlin. Before them there was not that much going on in terms of individualistic interior design in Berlin, but the guys behind Hallesches Haus were determined to change it. With their beautiful store they do not only offer a well curated selection of design products ranging from industrial chic, nostalgic retro classics, “cabin porn” to cute hipster items, they also have a lovely canteen and cafe attached to the store that offers contemporary breakfast and lunch and excellent coffee.
The selection of products changes all the time, so it’s worth it to go by every now and then, especially if you are looking for gifts for friends and family with good taste this place will not disappoint you. But don’t be too surprised if you end up keeping all the things you bought to yourself. We brought you some new impressions from the general store and the canteen that we took in Autumn 2017. Now there is one addition that we haven’t included in our set yet, the brand new HAY kitchen market with lots of practical little items for your kitchen from the beloved Danish design brand.
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by Frank | Design, Kreuzberg, Shops
We love to travel with a cultural agenda. Visiting Venice for the Art Biennale or Milan for Design Week was so inspiring and we love to look back at the photos we collected there. Art and design events are a wonderful bridge to get to know a new city and I always try to visit creative spaces, galleries or museums when I travel to a new city to get in contact with the creative local scene.
In the beginning of October I had the chance to discover a new town in my repertoire of creative hotspots: Liege. The third biggest city in Belgium (after Brussels which is known for politics and Antwerp which is known for fashion) is the so called “Latin” city of the country. They had a big wave of South European migration in the 60s that made the city quite connected with Italy. While visiting the Reciprocity Design Triennale I could almost physically feel this connection because I was always surrounded by Italians. This year’s edition had a main focus on design with a social impact. Bringing designers and citizens together in the process of public service innovation was one of the most focused topics in the exhibitions we saw. This was really inspiring for me as somebody who works with Berlin, because I love to learn more about how creative ideas can be a positive factor in the social development of a city.
What impressed me the most about the Reciprocity were the stunning locations they choose for their different exhibitions. From an old school theater with murals from the 20s, a church turned into a museum and a monumental swimming pool which is now a space for public events. Our friend and Blogfabrik colleague Eylül Aslan joined us for this trip. Discover her unique photographic impressions and some more insights and pictures from Liege after the jump.
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by Claudio | Art, Travel
photo: Jason Hargrove / CC
When you live in Berlin you will probably sometimes need more than a recommendation for a restaurant, party or fashion shop. Sometimes you need practical things for projects, jobs or for your house, like where to buy this or that material, where to rent this tool, how to produce this? Especially when you are new in town these things are a little harder to find than the obvious stuff. In an effort to make this blog more than just a tourist and culture guide we have started to come out with some features that go beyond gastronomy and entertainment. So far we already released guides on networking, learning German and moving to Berlin. Today we have yet another one that will come in handy every once in a while: Practical shops and services in Berlin. Here you will find hopefully a lot of places to buy materials and tools for crafts, designing, art, home improvement. We also added a couple of places for rentals and production. Enjoy our guide and feel free to add useful things that you think are missing in the comments below.
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by Frank | Shops
In Berlin we are lucky to have amazing shops dedicated to interior design and home accessories that we feel quite excited about. For the longest time the problem with interior design was that you had to choose between that big Swedish chain, vintage or super expensive designer products. Gladly this has changed and you have more options now of cutting-edge contemporary design that is actually affordable and still unique. Enjoy our selection after the jump.
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by Frank | Charlottenburg, Kreuzberg, Mitte
photos: Cristian Castelnuovo and iHeartBerlin
What makes you feel welcome in a new place, a new city or a new home? When I came to Berlin for the first time it was the free seat in the subway at Warschauer Straße waiting for me every morning to go to the university in Dahlem. I expected the subway to be a hostile and neurotic place and yet it was very relaxing for me to spend the 45 minutes just sitting there to observe the different kinds of people Berlin had to offer (and still has).
While traveling the world I discovered that there are many rituals and even traditions of welcoming strangers in a home. For the Milan Design Week that took place from April 14-19 this year we had the chance to see a very diverse and interesting interpretation of the topic. The social home sharing platform Airbnb partnered with the creative design and innovation center Fabrica to create Housewarming, an experimental exhibition celebrating simple welcoming traditions and the connection experienced by guests and hosts through sharing their home.
The exhibition took place at Palazzo Crespi, a historic and impressive private mansion that was open to the public for the first time for this year’s Milan Design Week. Embedded into the different parts of the Palazzo we discovered the installations and performances of 19 international designers who showed their versions of the welcoming traditions from their home country. Enjoy our impressions after the jump.
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by Claudio | Art, Travel
